HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-12-01; City Council; 14961; Carlsbad Convention and Visitors Bureau- h
CITY OF CARLSBAD - AGENDA BILL
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REQUEST FOR CHANGES TO THE 1998-1999 CONTRACT
0 F R PROMOTIONAL SERVICES BETWEEN THE CITY OF
CARLSBAD AND THE CARLSBAD CONVENTION AND
DEPT. ED VISITOR’S BUREAU
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
CITY ATTY. -4Is!L
CITY MGR-Zgp
Review the proposed 1998-l 999 contract changes from the Carlsbad Conventions and Visitor’s Bureau,
and direct staff regarding a proposed contract amendment.
ITEM EXPLANATION:
On August 20, 1997, the City Council authorized the Mayor to execute a two (2) year agreement with
the Carlsbad Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (CCVB) for promoting tourism and providing visitor
services. November 1, 1998 marks the beginning of year two (2), of the City’s two year contract with
CCVB. The approved 1998-1999 contract is for $243,000, $120,000 for operation of the Visitor’s
Center, and $123,000 for other promotional services.
Year one (1) of the 1997-1998 City/CCVB contract was originally approved and budgeted for $235,000.
That amount was increased to $303,000, on October 21, 1997, as a result of a request by CCVB to
expand their services and enhance their operations. At that time, it was recommended that program
enhancements for the second year of the contract be brought to Council for review at a later date. On
October 22, 1998, the City received a request from CCVB proposing new contract changes that would
increase the 1998-1999 contract and budget amount to $370,000. Although this request represents an
increase from the previous contract of $67,000, it would require an additional appropriation of
$127,000 in order to adjust the approved and budgeted 1998-1999 contract amount. The following
tables show a comparison of the original 1997-l 998, and 1998-l 999 contract amounts, with the 1997-
1998 revised contract amount and the new CCVB proposed 1998-l 999 contract:
Table 1
Table 2
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PAGE 2 OF AGENDLBILL NO. ! “I, 96 (
CCVB is requesting that the 1998-1999 contract amounts be reviewed by the City Council in
consideration of a number of program “initiatives” they are proposing (see Exhibit 2). If Council would
like to add any of these items to the existing contract, it would increase the total amount allocated for
the contract by the dollar amounts shown in Table 2 (above).
FISCAL IMPACT:
Funds for community promotion, totaling $243,000 were appropriated in the 1998-1999 operating
budget. If Council concurs with CCVB’s request, another $127,000 will need to be appropriated for the
second year of the contract. Staff recommends that Council appropriate any additional funds from the
Contingency Account. The Contingency Account available balance is approximately $2.8 million.
EXHIBITS:
1. Letter dated October 19, 1998 from CCVB Executive Director Steve Link to Economic Development
Manager Cynthia Haas.
2. “Initiatives for CONVIS Operations and Programs, November 1, 1998 - October 31, 1999.
. ’ . Exhibit 1
October 19,1998
Cynthia Haas
Economic Development
City of Carlsbad
2075 Las Palmas
Carlsbad, CA 92009
Dear Cynthia:
I am forwarding a compilation of expenditures for the first year of the two-year contract with the
city and proposed initiatives for the second year of the contract. Operating under a two-year
contract aided us immensely this year in strategic planning. Would it be possible to make this next
year the first year of a two-year contract?
This has been a tremendously successful year for the Carlsbad Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Some of the highlights include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
We increased the number of travel trade shows attended from 11 to 12.
We increased the number of “Celebrate the Magic of Carlsbad” brochures from 40,000 to
55,000 to keep up with the increased demand. Our Carlsbad web page increased from approximately 7,000 hits a week to more than 16,000
hits weekly this year.
We increased the number of volunteers working in the Visitor Information Center from 3 to 3 1.
We conduct a monthly volunteer training program that includes tours of Carlsbad’s points of
interest.
We worked with the Solana Beach, Encinitas and Oceanside chambers of commerce as well as
North County Transit District in joint promotions that included publishing 400,000 “Beach
Train” brochures that arc distributed throughout the state.
We published 20,000 German language brochures that arc being inserted in the State of
California brochures and distributed throughout Germany and Austria.
We will be happy to meet with you to discuss our programs.
Executive Director
Attachments as stated
Carlsbad Convention & Visitors Bureau
P.O. Box 1246 l Carlsbad, CA92018-1246
(760) 434-6093 * Fax (760) 434-6056
www.carlsbadca.org 3
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FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
Funding for ConVis operations and programs
November 1,1997 - Ott 31,1998
Allocated Expended Remaining I
Advertising $62,000 $61,922.20 $ 77.80
Promoting events 9,000 6,832.OO 2,168.OO
Travel Trade Shows 28,000 27,981.89 18.11
Fam Trips/ 6,000 3,241.83 2,758.17
Travel Writer
Brochures 15,000 14,999.39 .61
Video 1,000 98.88 901.12
Management 68,000 48,750.OO 19,250.oo
Overhead
ConVisNisitor 114,000 114,000.00 -00
Center Operations
Totals $303,000 $277,826.19 $25,173.81
I I I I
At the conclusion of the first year of the two-year contract, $25,173.81 of the funds
author&d by the city council was unspent. This is primarily because Carltas Co. didn’t
permit us to build a booth and man it in the Flower Fields to direct tourists to other
Carlsbad attractions, plus we canceled the German FilmFest and we have experienced
lower costs for the Fam trip/travel writer program than anticipated.
4
Exhibit 2
INITIATIVES FOR CONVIS OPERATIONS AND PROGRAMS
November 1,1998 - October 31,1999
Our marketing programs have been tremendously successful this year. To continue the
momentum, we propose several new initiatives for next year in the following categories:
Current Year’s New Programs Proposed
Funding and adjustments Funding
Advertising/ $71,000 $ 17,000 see# 1 below $88,000
Promoting events
Travel shows/ 34,000 ( 2,500) #2 31,500
Fam trips
Brochures 15,000 7,000 #3 22,000
I Video/CD-ROM I 1,000 I 19,500 #4
I
20,500 I
Management
Overhead
Consultant
(ad agency)
ConVWVisitor
68,000 0 #5 68,000
0 20,000 # 6 20,000
114,000 6,000 #7 120,000
Center Operations
Totals $303,000 $67,000 $3 70,000
1. Advertising/promoting events
We recommend combining the advertising and promoting events categories. We
have a wonderful window of opportunity to promote Carlsbad’s attractions by
piggybacking on as much of LEGOLAND’s advertising as we can afford. Obviously,
we can’t come close to their $15 million first year marketing budget. One example of
a new advertising opportunity associated with LECOLAND is the special 8-page
tabloid size (10 ‘/z X 13”) promotional piece they are producing to mail to more than a
million pre-selected families in Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Phoenix in early
March. A l/6 page (2 % X 5 %“) ad costs $5,950. We will also need to increase
newspaper advertising next spring to counteract the widespread image people have of
rocky beaches in Carlsbad. I strongly believe every dollar we can spend in
advertising will generate much much more in visitor spending. At a minimum, we
should increase the advertising budget by $20,000. At the same time, funds for
promoting special events can be reduced somewhat.
2. Trade shows/fam trips We recommend combining the trade shows and fam trips categories. The San Diego
ConVis has appealed to all destinations and attractions in the region to purchase
compatible travel trade show displays so we all appear uniform. LEGOLAND has
already purchased theirs. (See attached flyer). It comes in three or four panels at a
5
special cost of $1090 each. We would need three. Attached are the travel show
schedules for this year and next year. We are considering a booth at next year’s
American Society of Association Executives convention. But we will be unable to
participate in next year’s ASAE World Congress. We also plan to only accompany
the California Division of Tourism on their media blitz to New York every other year.
Our costs for travel trade shows should be about the same and we are reducing our
funding for fam trips.
3. Brochures
A task force of six people from the marketing committee have been meeting regularly
for five months to analyze the effectiveness of our 16-page “Celebrate the Magic”
brochure. Currently 2/3 of the 55,000 brochures are mailed in response to inquires or distributed at travel shows to entice people to visit Carlsbad and l/3 are distributed
locally in the Visitors Information Center or in hotels to inform visitors of things to
see and do. They recommended two separate brochures; one designed specifically to
entice visitors here and the second designed specifically to encourage visitors to stay
longer. It is important that both brochures have a similar appearance and theme. In
the 7-8 years that we have published the “Celebrate the Magic” brochure, the minor
changes to update the text and change a few photos costs $2,000 - $2,500 in graphics
work. (This does not include printing costs.) We have received bids from several
graphics shops and they range from $5,500-$6,000 for each brochure. Ad revenue
currently covers the cost of printing. Some of the increased cost for graphics will be
covered by advertising revenues. We also need to reprint 500 press kit folders. The
cover should have the same theme or similar appearance. The press kit folders will
cost about $750.
4. Video/CD-ROM
We no longer distribute the video we produced in 1991 because it is so obsolete
(doesn’t mention LEGOLAND or show Four Seasons Aviara, for example). We keep
some on hand to give travel writers to familiarize them with Carlsbad’s charms. We
do need to maintain about $500 in the category for special requests from television stations around the U.S. who need basic Beta video footage of Carlsbad scenes for
features they air. In January, representatives of Hi Tech Media did a presentation for
our Hotel/Motel committee. They demonstrated a CD-ROM produced for the San
Diego ConVis. The CD-ROM was divided into subject areas with dozens of pages of
information beautifully adorned with photos and graphics. The San Diego ConVis
distributes thousands of them to travel agents and other travel professionals. While
the Carlsbad hotels were very enthusiastic, our board of directors concluded the CD-
ROM was not sufficiently user friendly and was too expensive at $30,000 (it included
5000 free CD-ROMs). The San Diego ConVis is now on the 4ti edition of their CD-
ROM and it is vastly improved. Hi Tech Media has modified their proposal where
they will produce a CD-ROM for Carlsbad under our supervision, at a cost of $20,000
(it includes 4,000 free CD-ROMs). We would be pleased to arrange a demonstration
for you.
5. Management overhead
We are asking that this category be maintained at $68,000 even though we turned
back to the city more than $19,000 from this year’s allocation, Over the past two
years, we have expanded our advertising into publications aimed at groups i.e. tour
operators and meeting planners. Almost half of the travel shows we now attend are
aimed at travel professionals in the group market. The result has been a steadily
increasing number of inquiries from people seeking a site for a group meeting or
gathering. Their special needs require a time consuming search for the appropriate
venue by ConVis staff. This is currently an additional duty of Lee Lees, the Visitor
Information Center supervisor. The rest of us help if time permits. This sizable piece
of business for our hotels is not being processed as efficiently as it should. Ideally,
we should add a full time staff person with a computer to track the flow of inquires.
At a minimum, we need a part time staff person to process this business. We
currently have three full time staff people and two part time staff people, with two
others who work occasionally as needed.
6. Consultant (ad agency)
The marketing committee and board of directors have been considering a one-year
contract with an ad agency to advise us on a theme, oversee the development of our
brochures and other literature and in other ways help us fine tune our marketing
strategies. In September, we sent out RPP’s and received some interesting proposals
in the $20,000 range for a one-year contract. See attached RPP.
7. ConVisNisitor Center operations
We currently receive $9,500 monthly to cover utilities, office supplies, equipment, postage, a percentage of the staff salaries, etc. The two year contract approved by the
city council in October 1997 authorized an increase to $10,000 monthly effective
November 1,1998 to keep up with inflation. As we stated last year, we are exploring
a means to communicate with the 1.8 million people who will visit LEGOLAND, to
guide them to places to eat, shop and stay in Carlsbad. At this time, we are not
requesting funds for this purpose.
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September 30, 1998
Dear Sir,
In early January the Carlsbad Convention and Visitors Bureau is planning to reprint its principle
brochure (enclosed) and print for the first time two new brochures plus a new folder for press kits.
We are also interested in a new logo. It is our wish that all three brochures have the same theme
and the cover of each (plus the press kit) should reinforce this theme.
For more than a decade, we have adhered to the theme “The Village by the Sea” in our literature
and advertising. But with recent developments, including the new Four Seasons Resort,
LEGOLAND CALIFORNIA, Company Stores, the golf industry etc., marketing the image of a
charming coastal village is insufficient. We considered changing the theme to “Southern
California’s Ideal Family Vacation Destination”, but this may be insufficient as well.
We are interested in more than the services of a graphic artist. We are seeking a full service
agency under a one-year contract to guide us into new marketing ventures. We are sending this
letter to several agencies. We will select the agency based on graphic art capabilities and
knowledge of marketing the hospitality industry, plus costs. If you are interested, we will need
from you:
1. Examples of brochures, ads, poster, etc. that pertain to the hospitality industry.
2. Examples of marketing programs that you have managed, especially cooperative marketing
programs.
3. Hourly fees for graphic art services plus proposed monthly retainer fee and what services the
fee will cover.
We do not expect a precise estimate on doing the graphics on the brochures, because much of the
graphics will depend on the theme. Do not suggest a theme as part of your proposal.
I am sure you have questions. Please contact me. We would like to make a decision by mid-
October.
Sincerely,
Steve Link
Executive Director
/ufcH ,L/
Carlsbad Convention 8t Visitors Bureau P.O. Box 1246 l Carlsbad, CA 92018-1246 (760) 434-6093 l Fax (760) 434-6056
www.carlsbadca.org